Orbiting Jupiter

Orbiting Jupiter is a 2015 young adult fiction novel written by Gary D. Schmidt, the author of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and Okay for Now. The novel is set in rural Eastham, Maine, during the fall and winter of an unnamed modern-day school year.

Orbiting Jupiter
AuthorGary D. Schmidt
Cover artistCarmen Spitznagel/Trevillion Images (photographer); Sharismar Rodriguez (design)
LanguageEnglish
GenreYoung Adult Fiction
PublisherHoughton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date
October 6, 2015
Media typePrint
(Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN978-0-544-46222-9
OCLC948287511
LC ClassPZ7.S3527 Or 2015

Synopsis

Jackson (Jack) Hurd narrates his experience while his family is fostering Joseph Brook, a fourteen-year-old boy who served a month's sentence in the fictional Stone Mountain juvenile detention center. Joseph is a teenage father who signed his parental rights away to allow his daughter Jupiter to be placed for adoption. Shortly after signing away his rights, he took unmarked yellow pills and assaulted a teacher, for which he was sent to Stone Mountain. The novel begins with Mrs. Stroud, the social worker assigned to Joseph's case, telling the Hurd family specific rules for dealing with Joseph

Development

The farm owned by the Hurds is based on a real organic farm in East Sumner, Maine, that welcomes foster children and encourages them to develop self-responsible habits.[1] Schmidt based the character of Joseph on a boy he met while visiting a juvenile detention facility. He described the writing process as starting by listening for a narrator, which he found in Jack: "Sometimes it takes longest of all, but it’s everything. So I found this naïve 12-year-old who would grow throughout the book and has questions he’s beginning to ask for the first time. That voice, once it was there…then the book wasn’t too hard to write."[2]

Publication history
  • — (6 October 2015). Orbiting Jupiter (1st, hc ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-544-46222-9. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  • — (2015). Orbiting Jupiter (eBook ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-544-46264-9.
  • — (December 2015). Orbiting Jupiter (1st UK ed.). Andersen Press. ISBN 978-1783443949.

Characters
  • Key children
    • Joseph Brook – 14-year-old father, served time in Stone Mountain after his conviction for assaulting a teacher. Fostered by the Hurd family.
    • Jackson (Jack) Hurd – 12-year-old child, narrator
    • Madeline Joyce – 13-year-old (when she met Joseph) mother of Jupiter, attended school in Andover. Both of her parents were lawers so she spent a lot of time by herself .
    • Jupiter Joyce – daughter of Joseph and Madeline
  • Adults
    • Mr. Brook – Joseph's father
    • Mr. and Mrs. Hurd – Jackson's parents and foster parents to other children
    • Mrs. Stroud – social worker
  • Hurd farm animals
    • Dahlia – cow
    • Quintus Sertorius – horse
    • Rosie – Joseph's favorite cow
  • Eastham Middle School adults
    • Mr. Canton – Vice-principal
    • Mr. Collum – 8th Grade Science
    • Mr. D'Ulney – 6th/7th/8th Grade Mathematics (pre-Algebra)
    • Mrs. Halloway – 6th Grade Language Arts
    • Mr. Haskell – bus driver
    • Mr. Oates – 6th Grade Social Studies teacher
    • Coach Swieteck – Physical Education. "Coach had lost both his legs to a land mine in Vietnam a long time ago",[3]:Ch.2 matching the description of Doug Swieteck's oldest brother Lucas in Schmidt's previous novel Okay for Now.[4]
  • Eastham Middle School students
    • Brian Boss – 8th Grade bully
    • Ernie Hupfer – 6th-grade rider of Haskell's bus
    • Danny Nations – 6th-grade rider of Haskell's bus
    • Jay Perkins – 8th Grade bully
    • Nick Porter – 8th Grade bully
    • John Wall – 6th-grade rider of Haskell's bus

Reception

Publishers Weekly[5] and Kirkus Reviews[4] both gave the novel starred reviews. Jeff Giles, reviewing for The New York Times, called the novel warm and reassuring "though it has its share of tragedy."[6]

Awards

Orbiting Jupiter was placed on the longlist for the Carnegie Medal in 2017.[7]

See also

References
  1. Gary D. Schmidt (13 July 2017). "Tales Q&A with Gary D. Schmidt". Tales of Yesterday (Interview). Interviewed by Michelle Toy. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  2. Gary D. Schmidt (9 October 2015). "Gary D. Schmidt, author of Orbiting Jupiter" (Interview). Interviewed by Lora Shinn. Kirkus. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  3. Schmidt, Gary D. (6 October 2015). Orbiting Jupiter (1st, hc ed.). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-544-46222-9. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  4. "Orbiting Jupiter". Kirkus. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  5. "Orbiting Jupiter". Publishers Weekly. 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  6. Giles, Jeff (6 November 2015). "'The Trouble in Me' and 'Orbiting Jupiter'". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  7. "2017 Longlists for prestigious CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medals announced" (Press release). The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards. 16 February 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2018.

Reviews
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